While at the GATSME Ops Invitational on Saturday, one of the visitors was showing off the Tampo Singlet Servo DCC Accessory Decoder. I had never heard of this company or this product, but it only took about three minutes of seeing it first hand and hearing of it's capabilities to be in awe! To say I was impressed would be a huge understatement. This thing is almost too good to be true. The site has a video of it's operation, so I will let it speak for me.

They also make a product called the 'frog juicer', which is also amazing.

So, had anyone heard of this before and if so, your thoughts?

And no, I have no association with this company whatsoever. I'm a very curious potential buyer!

I should clarify what the Singlet Servo DCC Accessory Decoder is. It is essentially a slow motion switch machine with a built in DCC decoder, fully programable, and outputs for a signaling system to boot! What's really amazing is all of this for less than the price of a tortoise machine, and it works better!

I have bought 3 Octopus II boards off Tam Valley to power my 19 turnouts, Coupled with the SG90 servos I bought on ebay they are brilliant. I actually just installed my first servo on the layout and the Octopus works brilliantly. First up it centres the servo, then the alignment function takes care of the left and right throw. The actual throw speed is nice and slow, probably close to the Tortoise etc. The Octopus isn't a DCC controller as well, didn't need that in my instance. I understand the Singlet and the Quad are though. Anyway, loven' 'em so far!!

Good to hear Bruce! Yes, as I said, I was REALLY impressed with what I saw on Saturday. Yes, the Singlet is, among other things, also a DCC decoder, having all the programming capability (such as the alignment function you mention), as well as adjusting the speed of the throw! So far, I've heard nothing but good things about this product.

Mark, I have not personally used them, but one of the folks over on the Kalmbach trains.com forum that I have a lot of respect for has. He has posted some good information on their use and swears by the Tam Valley product. I fully intend to use them on my layout.

No direct experience, but the guy from Fast Tracks who's building the CNJ Bronx Terminal told me he's using their Hex Frog Juicer; that switchwork would have been incredibly difficult to make work in 2-rail without it.

This led me to realize why all the really fancy trackwork I'd seen before had been built for trolley barns etc..

I have one of the Hex Frog Juicers installed under my layout, in connection with the turnouts. They are hand-operated and save me the problem of having to install electrical switches, when you set the route up and the train passes over, it automatically detects which way the train is going and powers up accordingly. I'm happy with it.

Mark - I had the opportunity to spend an evening this past January w/ the owner/inventor of Tam Vally @ an informal op session in north Jersey... he was on his way to Springfield for the show and he regaled us all evening w/ his ideas and designs... many of the north Jersey guys love his products and swear by the frog juicers and servos... for me, his electrical intellect is so far over my head that I could not follow along!... but my more electrically-inclined buddies were in awe... Tam Valley strikes me as an innovative, cottage business whose products are A-1... I'm just not sure whether all of the aspects necessary to make a business successful long-term (marketing, distribution, etc.) are there or not... hope so.

Thanks for that input Jim! Like you, I'm certain all the 'electro-talk' would be way over my head as well. All I know is that I loved what I saw. I haven't gotten to the point where I need to install machines, and from what I can see, I might already have enough from my old layout, but I sure would like to give them a try.